A modern day folly, and at a cost of 285 million GBP

Thought for the day….” Do not look back, you are not going that way”

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving” (Albert Einstein).

The island of St. Helena is probably most famous with stamp collectors. The tiny island in the Atlantic Ocean lies about 1950km west of the African coastline. The population is about 4500 people, which makes the spending of 285 MILLION British pounds on a new airport rather surprising. St Helena is a British territory but the spending of such a large amount of money was done without sufficient surveys. The runway is subject to turbulent winds and wind shear, and operations have been judged to be dangerous. So despite spending a huge amount, only 18 aircraft have been able to land there due to the turbulent wind condtions and wind shear. So the British government is left with a huge bill for an airport that is considered too dangerous to fly into. But what will happen to the officials who ordered the building of this white elephant? I can guess. Zero. A modern day folly.

A photo from the South Island of New Zealand, and the state highway 8 over the Lindis Pass. At this point the road climbs to 971m before dropping down to the Ahuriri or Lindis Valleys. The special long, spiny grass which grows in this area is known as tussock grass (see lower right of the photo).

and another photo from the archives….legs plus. The legs on the far left are real.